This invention relates to packages for food casing strands.
Food casing strands are shirred tubular film food casing. "Shirred" means radially folded so as to be compressed along the longitudinal axis of the tubular film.
Such shirred food casings are packages for storage and shipment to food processors, e.g. meat packers making cylindrically shaped sausage product.
Numerous types of packages for shirred food casing have been used in the prior art. Such packages have included rigid cartons as well as net and film wrappings.
Film wrappings have had certain advantages, e.g. they are light weight and usually provide a moisture barrier to prevent dehydration of moisturized strand products.
One difficulty with film packages for food casing strands has been that a film which is strong enough to provide a secure package is generally difficult to remove from the packaged product.
This problem has been addressed by providing adhesive opening strips or areas which can be readily removed to provide access to package contents.
Unfortunately such adhesive strips have caused yet another problem in that after removal they tend to stick to undesirable areas creating disorganization and a generally messy environment.
In another known film packaging system, tape is provided along the length of the package and perforations or other weakened areas are provided along the edges of the tape so that a portion of packaging film is removed with the tape. The adhesive portion of the tape is thus covered by removed film which prevents problems associated with sticky removed tape. Such a package still has some disadvantages in that the film must be processed to provide weakened areas and there is a cost associated with the use of adhesive tape.
In essentially all cases in the prior art, at least one end of a package for a shirred casing strand must be opened before the strand can be placed on a stuffing horn to fill the casing with food product. Opening the package holding a strand, especially of fibrous casing, creates a risk that the strand will break along a helical fold thus making it very difficult or even impossible to load onto the stuffing horn. Furthermore, opening a package containing a strand of food casing before placement on a stuffing horn creates an increased risk of contamination.
None of the prior packages for food casing strands permit placement of the strand within a sealed package on a stuffing horn without opening the package while permitting easy removal of the packaging material while the stand remains on the stuffing horn.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a readily openable film package for food casing strands which overcomes the previously described disadvantages of prior art film packages.